Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested former managing directors and some senior officials of Port Harcourt Refining Company, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, and Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company over alleged financial mismanagement of the funds for rehabilitation of the refineries to the tune of over $2.6 billion.
According to sources in the commission, the affected officials include the former Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, Ibrahim Onoja, his Warri Refinery counterpart, Efifia Chu, and some yet-to-be identified top shots of the refineries, who are being grilled for their roles in the alleged diversion and misappropriation of funds allocated for the turnaround maintenance of the three refineries.
According to EFCC investigators, a total of $1.56 billion was allocated for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the Port Harcourt refinery, $740.7 million to the Kaduna refinery, and $657 million to the Warri refinery.
The investigation of the top management of the refineries by the anti-graft agency is coming barely three weeks after management changes at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), which has been managing the three refineries over the years.
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Specifically, early last month, President Bola Tinubu sacked the Group Managing Director of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, and the CEOs of the three refineries, including Bala Wunti, former chief of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, and reconstituted the NNPCL’s board and management.
A news report from The Punch newspaper indicated that the EFCC’s probe was intensified after about N80 billion was traced to the personal accounts of one of the sacked Managing Directors of the refineries
The newspaper quoted an official familiar in the know of the EFCC’s investigations of the CEOs of the refineries as saying that the “probe spans all key actors involved during the period. Nigerians are asking: where is the money, and why are the refineries still not functioning?”
Meanwhile, the EFCC has reportedly commenced a probe of Mele Kyari’s administration together with 13 other former top executives. An internal NNPCL memo dated April 28, 2025, confirmed the request for financial records by the anti-graft agency.
Recent reports indicated that despite claims of re-commissioning of the refineries by the Mele Kyari’s administration amid fanfare, the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries have underperformed or completely shut down since operations resumed in late 2024. For instance, the Warri refinery, with a 125,000 barrels per day capacity, collapsed again in January 2025 due to a major fault in its Crude Distillation Unit Main Heater.
Similarly, the Port Harcourt refinery, which the Kyari’s administration claimed it spent about $1.5 billion on its rehabilitation, has operated below 40% of its capacity since November 2024.
